The European Commission released its first ever corruption report on Monday
and the news was not good. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia
Malmstrom described the level of corruption in the EU as
“breath-taking” and the report indicates that the Czech Republic makes
a significant contribution to this unhappy state of affairs. Among the
statistics presented: 95 percent of Czechs perceive corruption as
widespread and 71 percent of companies consider it to be the main hurdle to
doing business in this country. I asked Radim Bureš of the Czech branch of
Transparency International how well the report reflects the present state
of affairs.

Photo: Barbora Kmentová
“Well, the EC report seems to be quite well-balanced. It seems that they
quite successfully described both the weaknesses and the positive features
of the corruption situation in the Czech Republic. I must say that ordinary
citizens do not meet with corruption in their daily lives too often. That
is the difference between us and countries where the corruption is really
widespread. Here corruption is concentrated in the interface between public
institutions and business. So on the one hand it is a small number of
people who are involved in corruption practices, on the other hand, there
are huge financial losses. It (eradicating corruption) is a long-distance
run. We cannot expect any significant change in a short time because even
the best laws cannot resolve the situation right away. But I really do hope
that concentrated measures can spare some percentage of the public funds
which are being abused at the moment and that tax-payers will be able to
see some positive results in the coming years.”

Radim Bureš, photo: archive of Transparency InternationalAs you say the main problems are in public procurement and abuse of funds
and the EU has called on the political elite to show greater responsibility
in this respect, but can we really expect that? People here feel that
corruption reaches into the highest echelons of power –can we really hope
that the next government will be better than the last?

“Yes, that is a very good question. First of all let me say that I
appreciate the EC’s view because it is not speaking only about problems
in public procurement but also about political accountability and political
leadership. The last elections showed the electorate’s deep
dissatisfaction with the traditional parties which patronized these shadow
business interests and had links to them. These parties were rejected in
the elections and the new parties have come with a clear anti-corruption
message. I hope that they will stick to their words and I am moderately
optimistic that the present government will act better than the previous
ones. “